The incident comes months after the Indian High Commission in London was attacked by pro-Khalistani forces. The United Kingdom has assured of necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of the Indian High Commission in London and its staff. “Let me be very clear about this. This is not an Indian problem in the UK. Whenever there is radicalisation in the UK of UK citizens, this is a British problem. And so any attempt to radicalise any UK citizen in any direction will be dealt with by the British government,” British Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said.
A group of Khalistan radicals stopped Indian high commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami from entering a gurdwara in Scotland on Friday. The Indian diplomat was stopped outside Glasgow Gurdwara on Albert Drive. Vikram Doraiswami reportedly had a meeting planned with the gurdwara committee.
The incident comes months after the Indian High Commission in London was attacked by pro-Khalistani forces. The United Kingdom has assured of necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of the Indian High Commission in London and its staff.
“Let me be very clear about this. This is not an Indian problem in the UK. Whenever there is radicalisation in the UK of UK citizens, this is a British problem. And so any attempt to radicalise any UK citizen in any direction will be dealt with by the British government,” British Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said.
“Let me be very clear about this. This is not an Indian problem in the UK. Whenever there is radicalisation in the UK of UK citizens, this is a British problem. And so any attempt to radicalise any UK citizen in any direction will be dealt with by the British government,” he said.
In March, India reacted angrily after pro-Khalistan elements attacked the Indian High Commission in London and pulled down the national flag from a pole at the front of the building.
A group of radical Sikh activists in the UK prevented the Indian High Commissioner, Vikram Doraiswami, from entering a Gurdwara in Scotland.
While the UK has acknowledged India’s concerns over Khalistan radicals in that country, Canada continues to provide safe havens to these anti-nationals.
Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that “agents of Delhi” were involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who is also a Canadian citizen. India has outrightly rejected the claims, calling it ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’.
Human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari, daughter of former Pakistan minister Shireen Mazari, was arrested on Sunday morning.
Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir was arrested on Sunday. (Image: Twitter/ @MahrangBaloch_)
Former Pakistan minister Shireen Mazari’s daughter and human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir was arrested on Sunday by the Islamabad Capital Police “for investigation”.
The arrest occurred just hours after Imaan Mazari took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to report an alleged break-in at her home, sparking outrage and concerns among activists and human rights groups.
Imaan Mazari had tweeted, “Unknown persons breaking down my home cameras banging gate jumped over (sic).” The message was posted at 3:50 am on Sunday, August 20.
The Islamabad Capital Police confirmed the arrests in a statement posted on X, saying, “Islamabad Capital Police has arrested Ali Wazir and Imaan Mazari. Both suspects were wanted by the Islamabad Police for investigation. All action will be taken in accordance with the law.”
The police did not specify the details of the case under investigation.
However, a Tarnol Police Station personnel said the young lawyer and activist was booked for interference in state affairs, staging a sit-in, and resistance, as per a report by news agency PTI.
FAMILY CALLS IT ABDUCTION
An hour after Imaan had posted the distressing message on X, her mother, former PTI leader Shireen Mazari, posted another alarming message, claiming that “policewomen, plainclothes people and r ager (sic) types took my daughter away after breaking down our front door.”
Shireen Mazari said that they also took away their security cameras and her daughter’s laptop and cell phone.
“We asked who they had come for and they just dragged Imaan out. They marched all over the house. My daughter was in her night clothes and said let me change, but they just dragged her away. There was no warrants or any legal procedures. This is state fascism. Remember we are only two women living in the house. This is an abduction,” Shireen Mazari said.
Later, Shireen Mazari told the local media that 20 people had entered their home, with more officials standing outside. “There were six female officers that I saw but there was no male wearing the blue uniform of Islamabad Police,” she was quoted as saying by Dawn.
This arrest follows Imaan’s recent participation in a rally for the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), a group of Pushtu-speaking activists known for their criticism of the military establishment. At the rally, she openly criticised the powerful military, which had previously led to a criminal case against her for using abusive language towards former Army chief Gen (retd.) Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Imaan’s mother, Shireen Mazari, had quit the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party following the May 9 attack on the country’s military installations and government buildings.
Rukchanok “Ice” Srinork is on the campaign trail for the general election on 14 May
In a cramped shophouse in one of Bangkok’s nondescript outer suburbs, a small group of volunteers feverishly pack leaflets in preparation for the daily ritual of canvassing for votes.
This is the decidedly low-rent campaign headquarters in Bang Bon for Move Forward, the most radical party contesting this month’s general election in Thailand.
Pacing among them is the parliamentary candidate, Rukchanok “Ice” Srinork, a 28-year-old woman brimming with energy, who constantly flicks through her social media pages. Ice’s team have bought cheap bicycles, and for weeks now they have been using them, in brutally hot weather, to reach out to residents in the smallest alleys of Bang Bon.
Ice is one of a slate of young, idealistic candidates for Move Forward who have joined mainstream politics in the hope that this election allows Thailand to break the cycle of military coups, street protests and broken democratic promises in which the country has been trapped for two decades.
Move Forward is the successor party to Future Forward, which exploded onto the political stage in Thailand five years ago.
It contested the first election permitted since a coup in 2014 deposed the then-elected government. Future Forward was something new, promising sweeping changes to Thailand’s political structures, including limiting the power of the armed forces, and, more quietly, suggesting changes to the monarchy, then a strictly taboo topic.
“Their agenda was basically about taking Thailand’s future back from the powers-that-be,” says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, from the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University. “In this century young people have had to live in a country that has been lost to an endless cycle – we had two coups, two new constitutions, a series of judicial dissolutions of parties. I think the younger demographic got sick and tired of it. And Future Forward tapped into that sentiment.”
It stunned conservatives by winning the third largest share of seats in the 2019 election. Thailand’s royalist establishment, a network of military officers, senior bureaucrats and judges, responded as it has to similar threats in the past – it had Future Forward dissolved by the Constitutional Court, and banned its leaders from politics. The party lost about one-third of its MPs, and its replacement, Move Forward, became a lonely opposition voice in parliament.
Move Forward’s Pita Limjaroenrat, 42, with supporters in Chiang Mai
Yet in recent weeks the party’s popularity in opinion polls has been surging again, alarming rivals. Many polls put its leader, the telegenic and articulate Pita Limjaroenrat, as the preferred candidate for prime minister.
That popularity is changing the reception Ice and her bicycling volunteers are getting in Bang Bon, traditionally the fiefdom of a powerful family from a rival party. People are genuinely interested in what these youngsters have to offer. Even older residents talk about the need for big changes in Thailand.
Ice herself epitomises this shifting political landscape. She admits she used to be a die-hard royalist, who cheered on the military coup and admired the man who led it, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is still prime minister today.
“I think that I’m doing this partly out of feeling guilty that I was part of a movement that encouraged the coup, a crime against 70 million people,” she says. “At that time, I agreed with it and thought it was the right answer for the country. But later I asked myself, how could that happen? How could this nation support a freaking coup? And that’s when I became taa sawang.”
“Taa Sawang” – literally, “bright eyes” – is the phrase adopted by younger Thais to describe their being enlightened about previously taboo topics, in particular the monarchy. It was a watchword of the mass protest movement that erupted after Future Forward was banned in 2020, at a stroke disenfranchising millions of younger voters who were hungry for change.
And that movement, while it was eventually crushed through the extensive use of the draconian lese majeste law, shattered the taboo, by calling openly, for the first time, for the powers and financing of the monarchy to be accountable. Three years later, Move Forward’s support for royal reform no longer seems so shocking. And more Thais seem willing to back the party’s broader agenda for change.
Chonticha “Kate” Jangrew’s journey has been from the opposite direction. Her “taa sawang” moment was much earlier, when she still a student.
She was among a very small group of dissidents willing to risk arrest by protesting against the 2014 coup that Ice was still cheering. She also joined the much bigger, monarchy-focused protests of 2020. But now she has decided to give up her activist life, and run as a candidate for parliament, also for Move Forward. “I believe to achieve the changes we want we have to work in parliament as well as on the streets,” she says.
Her pitch to voters in Pathum Thani, another district outside Bangkok, is unusual. “I have 28 criminal charges against me,” she tells them – two are under the lese majeste law, which carries a penalty of 15 years in prison for each. “But that shows you I am brave enough to speak out when I see something that needs to happen for our country.”
Even older voters seem charmed by her youthful sincerity. Almost everyone at the market where she appeared said they liked Move Forward, because they represented change, and would stick to their promises.
Yang Chih-yuan, a Taiwanese political activist, has been formally arrested in China on secession charges.
A Taiwan political activist has been formally arrested on suspicion of “secession” in China, more than eight months after he was detained amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
Yang Chih-yuan, a democracy campaigner and pro-independence politician, was detained by Chinese state security in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province last August, hours after then United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrapped up her high-stakes visit to Taipei.
The visit infuriated Beijing, which retaliated by holding days of large-scale military drills and firing missiles over the self-governing island, pushing tensions to their highest in decades.
Yang’s fate remained unknown for months.
But on Tuesday, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced on social media that prosecutors in Wenzhou had approved the arrest of Yang on secession charges, after the city’s state security bureau concluded its investigation and handed the case to the prosecutors for “review and prosecution.”
The statement did not mention when Yang will appear in court.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said they had repeatedly reached out to mainland authorities about Yang’s detention but had not received a direct response.
“The government reiterates that Yang is innocent and calls on the Chinese Communist Party to release Yang and allow him to return to Taiwan as soon as possible,” the council said in a statement to CNN Tuesday.
Yang, 33, has been active in Taiwan’s social movements for more than a decade and once contested for a seat in Taiwan’s legislature, which he did not win.
In 2019, he became the vice chairman of the Taiwan National Party, a fringe political party advocating Taiwan independence. The party is now defunct, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported on August 3 last year that Yang was taken into custody by the state security bureau in Wenzhou for engaging in “separatist activities” supporting Taiwan independence and endangering national security.
China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own territory, despite having never controlled it, and has refused to rule out the use of force to “unify” the island with mainland China.
Under leader Xi Jinping, China has stepped up crackdown against perceived threats from both within and outside the country, arresting Chinese and foreign nationals for endangering “national security” – a broadly and vaguely defined concept under Chinese law.
Non-mainland Chinese citizens have also been imprisoned for national security crimes. Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che, for example, was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for “subverting state power.” Lee was released last year after serving his full sentence.
Handcuffed and escorted
CCTV said Yang had long advocated the idea of “Taiwan independence” and founded the Taiwan National Party to push for Taiwan to become an independent, sovereign country and a member state of the United Nations.
The broadcaster aired footage showing a handcuffed man purported to be Yang being held by two officers, as the police went through his phone, wallet and other personal belongings.
In a subsequent report, CCTV said Yang had been placed under “residential surveillance at a designated location” from August 4 – a form of secrete detention frequently applied to national security cases in China that United Nations human rights experts say tantamount to enforced disappearance.
Authorities in Beijing and Taipei have not given any explanation as to why Yang had traveled to the mainland.
However, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council reminded Taiwan citizens to evaluate the risks before traveling to mainland China, citing the “repeated occurrence of similar cases recently,” without elaborating on the incidents.
“When the epidemic on both sides of the strait is gradually slowing down and people on both sides are hoping to resume normal exchanges, the mainland arbitrarily arrested Taiwanese people, seriously harming the rights and interests of our people and creating fear,” it said in a statement to CNN. “This is bound to be detrimental to the exchanges and interactions across the strait.”
News of Yang’s formal arrest comes as concerns are mounting for a Taiwan-based book publisher, who reportedly has been detained in China since March, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA).
